Hobbymat sale?????

I have recently put up a Hobbymat for sale, both on this and another forum/website. Had a couple of responses plus the following -

Hello seller,

I am lukas Walter,I am interested in purchasing your device listed on homeworkshop.co.uk,I want to see the cost,condition and least offering Price.

I look forward to read from you.

Regards,
Lukas Walter H
[email protected]

I sent him the details and received the following -

Hello,

Thanks for your swift response,I am based in dublin,Ireland.I Apologies for the delay in replying you.I'm very much interested and the asking price is OK with me.Well I read and understand that the lathe is in a very good condition.However I'll instruct my colleague in London to issue you a Check/Draft in your name with an advance Payment which will cover the shipping to its final delivery address and having it in mind that business is based on trust,The reason is that i can not issue out a separate check to my carrier on a single transaction like this due to my company's policy.

Therefore My Client will issue out a UK draft for 2,200 GBP which will be addressed to your Name,As soon as you receive the draft,Take it to your bank,Have it Cleared in your Local Bank,Clearance should take 3-4 working days,do deduct the cost price due for the purchase and the remainder after deducting your cost will be used for the pickup by my reputable shipping company's staff Sir Ashley Owen,he will take care of the collection from your location,So you should be expecting a check/Draft in a couple of days.If this is clear please do write me back with all the details below in order to make the Payment Payable: :-

Info needed are as follows:

(1)Check payable to:
(2)Home Address:
(3)State:
(4)Post code:
(5)City:
(6)Country:
(7)Telephone number/mobile phone:

Note :- Am ready to offer you an additional 20 GBP plus your sales price,If you do consider it sold to me and turn away every other interested buyer's or better still take off the ads of the Website.

Thanks With Regards

Noticing a squadron of pink pigs forming up overhead, I thought I ought to give Mr Walter a slight benefit of doubt and sent the following in reply -

Hi
Thank you very much for your message and the EXTREMELY generous
offer you made for the Hobbymat. Unfortunately, as a child, my parents
insisted that I should NEVER, NEVER, take advantage of another person's
generosity. I am afraid, therefore, that we cannot proceed any further
with this sale.
However, it seems to me that such exceptional kindness
of spirit should not go unnoticed and I shall, therefore, copy our
correspondence to an appropriate website in the hope that one of its
members may be able to offer you a similar machine. Should there be a
positive response, I will be in touch immediately.
Rgds
Bill

.....

Any takers?????

Rgds

Bill

Gee thanks Bill!

Just in case any honest soul hasn't registered Bill's humorous undertone, this kind of arrangement is a SCAM.

The way it works is that the seller is sent a genuine cheque/draft for the sum specified. He then banks it and initially it's successfully credited to his account. The seller thinks he's quids in and contacts the buyer's 'agent'. The latter calls to collect the goods and receive the excess payment, his 'change' as it were. Some weeks down the line the bank discovers that the cheque/draft is stolen/fraudulent and promptly debits the seller's account by the amount of the payment. Poor old seller is left without his goods and a gaping hole in his bank account!

I know that Ebay/Gumtree is infested with these chancers but it's a bit sad that even the modest few transactions on this site can attract their attention.

Joe

Sounds like a good deal to me.

I've got a bridge I can sell him.

Buyer uplifts after the payment clears

Edited By Ady1 on 09/03/2012 14:50:47

Hi Bill

I assume Lucas Walter is first cousin to Dulas Di' Shwater.

One very positive point to take from this episode - it gave me a good laugh!

Nice to see that a sense of the ridculous is flourishing over the border down there.

Regards

Norman

Hi There

Lukas is not a member under that name so nothing I can do to ban him.

regards David

Hi All Sellers Beware !!

Lukas Walter also replied to my advert for Sievert Burners. I received an almost identicle EMail as Bill except that he is now in Scotland . He also offered me a draft for 2200GBP for items only worth tens of pounds. He was more generous with me and offered 40GBP to withdraw my advert ! Maybe I should just accept that part of his offer. Seriously though it must now be BUYER BEWARE & SELLER BEWARE.

Regards Colin

P.S I have also informed the relevant website.

Hi Ady, how much do you want for your bridge?. I've got one just like it (parked just outside edinburgh). I think they would make a cracking pair

alex

I too received eMail from Lukas Walter [in Dublin], relating to my Milling Vice.

I was particularly impressed by his assurance of ... "pickup by my reputable shipping company's staff Sir Ashley Owen"

MichaelG.

Got 2 bridges down Bristol way for sale.

Bob

Got a Cathedral here in Christchurch, as is where is, well actually there are two of them, but the other lot think they can put theirs together again. Ian S C

Hope CJ gets a genuine buyer. My own green Hobbymat is a nice little lathe.

Don't be too hard on the scammers. They have themselves been scammed. It is a pyramid system. Top scammer puts it about that he has made a killing and sells an 'instruction pack' which is where he makes his money. That's why they are all so similar and have glaring faults when the perpetrator doesn't really understand the instructions.

In the uk you see it on traffic lights 'make £500 from home'. Pre internet it was rife in America with books on how to make a million from government surplus sales. All the same system where it is selling the scheme that is the real scam.

Hi Bazyle

You say " Don't be too hard on the scammers they have themselves been scammed"  - what does that say for ethics? They have been foolish enough to fall for the promise of a "Get rich quick" scam and then try to offload their losses onto someone else. That is just as bad and may be worse than the originator as they too must abandon all conscience and try to suck some other victim into the scheme.

The old rule of "If it looks too good to be true then it probably is" applies.

The best response is to ignore them and the second is Bill's original reply which probably didn't have any impact on the scammer but made Bill feel better and made me, at least, laugh.

rgds

Norman

Edited By NJH on 10/03/2012 12:45:16

Edited By NJH on 10/03/2012 12:45:43

Anyone who cannot spot this as a scam needs to get out the shed a bit more often and take part in the real world.

They apply the scam expecting to hook a worm using greed as bait. As Norman says "if it looks good it is too good to be true"

The worst thing is to reply to these people, it indicates they have a fish on the line on an active email adddress which can be sold on.

We do have a warning on the homeworkshop.org site about these scams just as a heads up but we ignore it when someone tells us about them as it's the sellers responsibilty to handle their transaction correctly. When you sell something the normal way is the buyers pays, then gets the goods. In no method of selling does the seller have to part with money up front then part with the goods.

If after all these years they cannot understand this simple rule they deserve to get ripped off.

John S.

Bill

I would very much appreciate it if you could pass this message on to Lukas Walter, I am sure he is a very kind and generous person and I would like to give him this wonderful opportunity.

Unfortunately the aforementioned Sir Ashley Owen finds himself in a bit of a pickle and rather financially embarrassed. As a victim of scammers he lost all his money from his UK bank account, now without funds he is unable to access his offshore millions located in a bank in Timbuck Two. It saddens me so much to see my dear friend and employer in this very difficult position, I only wish I could help him myself. Without access to his offshore funds Sir Ashley's estate will fall into ruins.

If Lukas could send some money to the amount of 5000GBP Sir Ashley will than be able to release his offshore funds. If Lukas would be so very kind to do this Sir Ashey will generously reward him by paying 200,000 GBP directly into his personal bank account. If Lukas would be so kind to post his full bank details on this forum Sir Ashley will transfer this money promptly.

Kind Regards

Butler, Chauffeur, Cook